Research Project on eLearning
Dec 12, 2014
By
Rob Morgan
Hello,
I am in the final year of my graduate degree in Educational Technology. As part of a final project I need to find an issue in an Ed Tech field and ask a research question and then create training to solve the problem and research everything along the way.
I have narrowed my area down to eLearning but that is a broad field. There has been a lot of research done already in F2F vs eLearning so I will stay away from that. I two possible ideas right now the first dealing with computer self-efficacy and eLearning and the second dealing with self organized learning.
Does anyone else out there have any thoughts on areas for research that is lacking within the eLearning field?
Thanks.
3 Replies
Hello Rob!
Very interesting topic, thanks for sharing it here with the community!
Your two proposed topics sound quite interesting! Can you elaborate a bit/share more details about exactly what you want to research with regards to computer self-efficacy and self-organized e-learning? I'm intrigued!
Looking forward to hearing ideas from community members on this!
The first one would be "Does computer self-efficacy influence perceived successful of eLearning?" If the answer is yes that would mean that an organization getting ready to move in the direction of eLearning could give their constituents a computer self-efficacy questionnaire. And, based on the results, could have confidence that their organization was ready or that their organization may require some additional computer training prior to rolling out eLearning.
The second question is less polished yet but it would be something like "Has google replaced the classroom teacher? The impact of self organized learning has on traditional classroom pedagogy" This would look at the availability of almost any topic at our fingertips. Do we still need to sit a student in the classroom and have him be an passive receptor to knowledge or can a student take an active role in directing their own learning with a facilitator available to guide and encourage. This question would look a lot at what Dr. Sugata Mitra is doing with SOLE classrooms.
I would be careful about Mitra, Donald Clark has some interesting things to say on Mitra.
http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/sugata-mitra-slum-chic-7-reasons-for.html
http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/more-holes-in-sugata-mitras-hole-in.html
As far as Google etc. maybe take a look at this video by Derek Muller.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEmuEWjHr5c&list=UUHnyfMqiRRG1u-2MsSQLbXA
Dr. Muller did his Ph.D. thesis on teaching physics and is very good at helping people understand physics.
In regards to the first question, my observation has been that the biggest issue for the success in eLearning is "Does the company have the infrastructure (computers, internet speed) to adopt eLearning". There also might be some interesting questions on how do you adapt eLearning when people have a diverse learning background. I have had to develop in-class and eLearning courses for companies where some people are functionally illiterate and others have Masters and Ph.D.'s
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